Traditional or conventional belts, usually constructed with a buckle mechanism and other hardware, can provide garment support. However, for certain applications, aesthetic, fashion, and fit issues may arise that highlight the limitations of conventional belts for such applications. For example, in many situations, conventional belts have too much, or too little, material left after adjustments, and users are left with the fit and fashion problems.
Many times, users have to balance the fit of a belt with the fashion look the user desires. Conventional belt buckles, hardware, holes, excessive material, or the like create and/or contribute to fit and fashion problems. When trying to figure out how to deal with fit problems of conventional belts, users may have to pull conventional belts too tight thereby ruining the fashion look the users desire to achieve. Typically, users want to prevent clothing problems, such as, trousers that gap in the back, pants that fall down exposing undergarments, pants that slip down repeatedly, and the like. Even though users may consider comfortable fit and outfit support when deciding to employ conventional belts, many users do not want to employ conventional belts that would ruin the desired fashion look of the outfit. Typically, users want to maintain outfit support, comfortable fit, and fashion look.
In other situations, body shape or figure of users can create issues with certain articles of clothing. For instance, people with large physical posteriors and small waists can have a difficult time finding clothing to fit their body shapes. As a result, people in such a situation have to buy larger sizes to accommodate their body shape even though the waistline of the garment is larger than necessary for the waist of those potential belt users. In other situations, physical medical issues, such as scoliosis or the like, prevent garments from fitting without additional support. Traditional or conventional belts do not provide enough support in these situations, particularly where conventional belts can not be adjusted properly to allow a user to wear clothing with comfort.
The inventors have recognized that when dealing with the fashion problems of conventional belts, belt users have to deal with bulges underneath clothing. There are many times when a user requires the support of a belt but does not want to wear a traditional or conventional belt with hardware, buckles, holes, excessive material, or the like since such components of a belt interfere with the user's outfit fashion look. Typically, when a user puts on a traditional or conventional belt, the user has to feed the end of a strap through a buckle which can leave extra material at the end of the belt which adds more bulk to a person's outfit. When wearing an outfit where a shirt will go over the waist of the bottom garment, a conventional belt, with a buckle or other hardware, may bulge under the shirt. For those users who consider fit and fashion of an outfit of clothing when deciding on belt choice, bulge or too much thickness can ruin the fit and/or the fashion look the user is trying to achieve.
Another problem with conventional belts occurs when such belts lack fashion design, such as colors, patterns, graphic designs, different widths, or the like. When considering a belt to use with an outfit, a user may find that conventional belts are inadequate to supplement a fashion look for garments.
The inventors recognized that there is a need for a discreet, in certain situations, barely visible to virtually invisible, adjustable belt for supporting clothing around a waist of a user which can be customized and/or adjusted as the user desires.
In one aspect, there is provided a discreet belt for a clothing article, the belt including:
a belt body formed from a flexible, elongated, elastic strap;
at least one fastening element operably connected to the belt body, wherein the at least one fastening element is adapted to releasably close the belt around an outer surface of the clothing article; and
at least one adjusting element operably connected to the belt body, wherein the adjusting element is adapted to increase and/or decrease a length of the belt body so that the belt may be tightened and/or loosened around an outer surface of the clothing article to secure the clothing article to a waist of a user. Various embodiments and variants are provided.
In an embodiment, there is provided a discreet belt for a clothing article, the belt including:
a belt body having a first terminal end and a second terminal end, the belt body being formed by a flexible, elongated, thermoplastic strap, the strap being transparent, semi-transparent or opaque;
a first clasp operably attached to the first terminal end of the belt body and a second clasp operably attached to the second terminal end of the belt body, the clasps adapted to be releasably fastened to one another to close the belt around an outer surface of the clothing apparel; and
two cinch buckles operably connected to the belt body, wherein the cinch buckles are adapted to increase and/or decrease a length of the belt body so that the belt may be tightened and/or loosened around an outer surface of the clothing article to secure the clothing article to a waist of a user. Various embodiments and variants are provided.
In another aspect, there is provided a method of improving a fit between a clothing article and a waist of a wearer, the method including providing the wearer with a discreet belt that includes:
a belt body formed from a flexible, elongated, plastic strap;
at least one fastening element operably connected to the belt body, wherein the at least one fastening element is adapted to releasably close the belt around the outer surface of the clothing article; and
at least one adjusting element operably connected to the belt body, wherein the adjusting element is adapted to increase and/or decrease the length of the belt body so that said belt may be tightened and/or loosened around the outer surface of the clothing article to secure the clothing article to the waist of the wearer; whereby enabling the wearer to control the fit between the clothing article and the wearer's waist by tightening and/or loosening said belt. Various embodiments and variants are provided.
Other features will become clearer from the detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.